5 STATELESSNESS AND THE MIGRATION BACKGROUND OF INTERVIEWED STATELESS PERSONS 5.1 Uncertain residential status Most persons interviewed during the study have been living in the Czech Republic for many years. Seven of fifteen interviewed stateless persons arrived in the Czech Republic in the 1990s. One was born in the Czech Republic. The average length of their stay in the country was 16 years. Most of them have arrived with a valid visa and a travel document. Approximately half of the interviewed persons arrived in the Czech Republic with a view to seeking international protection, the rest came to work or to be reunited with their families. Most interviewed persons have, therefore, previously held various types of residence permits in the Czech Republic. In some cases, the residence permits have not been extended or have been cancelled, often for reasons related to the persons’ statelessness (inability to show an ID, etc.). Others have never succeeded in their efforts to obtain a valid residence permit in the Czech Republic and their legal residence has been limited to the duration of asylum or expulsion procedures or in the periods spent in custody or in prison. A total of 11 interviewed persons have applied for international protection at some point during their stay in the Czech Republic, with over a half of them doing so repeatedly. The average length of time spent in refugee status determination procedures was around seven years. Only one interviewed person was granted international protection based on his well-founded fear of persecution in Syria, country of his former habitual residence. At the time of the interviews, only three persons had a valid residence permit. The remaining 12 persons were staying in the country irregularly or their stay was permitted temporarily based on the exit visa or pending the administrative expulsion procedure. Nine of the interviewed persons have lodged the application for the determination of their statelessness status under Section 8 (d) of the Asylum Act. 5.2 Attempts to find a legal solution The findings stemming from the individual cases included in the research illustrate the difficulties with the current legislative framework to address the specific situation of stateless persons and facilitate regularisation of their residence. Persons who had a certain type of residence permit in the past have found it impossible to regularize their stay again. Similar problems were encountered by rejected asylum-seeking participants. « I’m trying, but nobody is opening a door. Just to have someone who could say, “Hey, we’ll give you a chance and you solve your situation.” I just want that chance.” Legal avenues for stateless persons in a migratory context to regularise their stay are, indeed, very limited. First, applications for most types of residence permits must be made at Czech embassies or consulates abroad and, second, applicants must present a valid travel document. This is often unrealistic for stateless persons. The persons interviewed in the study were unable to travel outside the Czech Republic and they had no travel document that they would be able to submit in order to apply for a residence permit. Also, countries of former habitual residence or successor states to their countries of origin may be unwilling to admit them on its territory because they were not its nationals. The interviewed persons could, therefore, neither leave the Czech Republic, nor resolve their situation in the Czech territory. UNHCR Czech Republic 33